Taxation has very much been in the limelight in recent weeks. We have the seen the government chastised for a plan to implement increased taxes on fuel by around 10c per litre over the next few years. There has been the constant spectre of the Tax Working Group hanging over us, and over the weekend, the appointment of Marama Davidson as Co-leader of the Greens gave rise to the discussion of new and higher taxes, including higher income tax, for which she is a supporter.

The government is set to break its pre-election promise not to introduce any new taxes till 2020 . It proposes to increase in fuel tax of between 9 to 12 cents per litre over the next three years. This is on top of the 10 cents per litre regional fuel levy that Aucklanders will pay from July 1. Regardless of Labour’s political posturing that higher excise tax isn’t “new”, and that anyway National increased it while they were in power – what the tax rise means is that we will all pay more for our fuel in order to fund investment in light rail, rail infrastructure, and safety improvements for our roads.

National MP and former Minister of Health Jonathan Colman has decided to step down from his role as Northcote MP in order to take up a position in the private sector. Mr Colman maintained it was a hard decision, “ But when you get offered opportunities like this, you just got to take them”.

Some of you may have seen on Facebook or in the mainstream media the campaign we ran over the last week. For those who have not, you can see it here. Gareth has just turned 65 and is now able to receive the New Zealand Superannuation. The purpose of the exercise was to show how we are spending billions on welfare for pensioners like Gareth and Winston Peters, all the while having some of the highest rates of child poverty in the developed world.

This week we published our assessment of the Labour-led coalition’s first 100 days of policy plans and pronouncements. To be clear our assessment is strictly about whether the policies announced are substantive, will likely deliver what their promotors assert, and will progress the state of well-being of New Zealanders. It’s important to differentiate policy substance from any popular public appeal that a policy, a policy announcement or indeed the mana of the messenger – might engender. With policy, what matters is

the stated objective,

whether the detail of the policy plan supports that objective,

and finally whether the implementation of the policy does or does not enable the policy to be effective.

Of course the devil is always in the detail, hyping up a policy is a far cry from delivering the declared effect.

Stockmarket palpitations are always great for low level headlines from daily media. The latest has been no exception with headlines screaming really dumb tags such as “Dow drop is a record”. It’s click bait in the extreme and a commentary on just how superficial coverage by popular media is.